Green Man Gaming Community Rules and Guidelines

The Green Man Gaming Community is a place for gamers of all kinds to share their passion for video games, and we want to make sure that everyone has a great time on the site. To ensure that our community remains a welcome place for all, we expect all users to follow the rules and guidelines below – in short, play nice!

Your level of activity or length of time as part of the community does not exclude you from following these rules. Debate and discussion is encouraged, as long as it doesn’t break the rules below.

Warnings and Bans

If you are found to break the rules, the Green Man Gaming staff and moderation team may give you a warning, or in certain instances, a temporary or permanent ban.

While some bans are instant and permanent, most are decided after multiple warnings have been given, and are at the discretion of the Green Man Gaming staff and moderation team. Some instances may result in a temporary ban before a permanent ban is eventually given. What may seem like a permanent ban over a small issue is more likely the result of a long line of previously flagged, thoroughly investigated issues.

Abusive Language

We do not accept racism, sexism, homophobia, aggression towards religious groups or bigotry of any kind. Using any slurs or offensive language of this nature may result in your account being permanently banned from the community.

Respect

We encourage debate and appreciate that discussion can often become heated, but you should always treat other users with respect without resorting to insults. In short, treat others as you would like to be treated! Aggression towards other users may result in a warning or, in serious cases, a temporary or permanent ban.

Trolling

If you are perceived to be trolling – deliberately derailing discussions and personally attacking users – your account may be permanently banned. Using any element of the site, including private messages, to harass or bully other users will not be tolerated by our staff or moderation team and may result in a permanent ban.

Reporting Other Users

Use of the buzz feed to complain about another user’s behaviour or to directly call out a user is not permitted and may result in a warning, temporary or permanent band depending on the severity of the situation. Please use the report system or private message a member of our moderation team and let them handle it.

Moderating Controversial Posts

The Green Man Gaming staff and moderation team reserve the right to delete entire threads, as well as individual posts, if they feel they will have a negative impact on the community and its members and are likely to become difficult to moderate. This especially applies to threads and posts that include sexual, religious or political content. Reposting a thread after it has been deleted may result in your account being temporarily or permanently banned, depending on the severity of the issue.

Inappropriate Images

Green Man Gaming is a community open to users as young as 13, and any imagery containing exposed genitalia, buttocks and female nipples are not allowed on any part of the site, including private messages. This includes cartoon nudity.

Likewise, graphic violence, gore and anything else considered “Not Safe for Work” will be removed. In general, if it wouldn’t be considered safe to view at school or in a workplace, it is not acceptable on Green Man Gaming. If you are in any doubt about the suitability of a post, please contact a member of the moderation team before you post.

Profile Content

Please bear in mind that all of our rules not only relate to the main buzz feed, but also to posts you make on your own profile. Inappropriate images as avatars or bios that break our rules regarding abusive language will result in your public profile being turned off, and could lead to a warning, temporary or permanent ban depending on the situation.

Piracy

Discussion of topics such as emulation and piracy is allowed, but piracy-related tips and directions to piracy sites are not permitted. Posting links to torrents or other illegal downloads, or illegal key or ROM sites, may result in a temporary or permanent ban, depending on the severity of the situation.

Spam

We consider spam to be the frequent posting of low-quality content. This includes, but is not limited to, posting the same link repeatedly, posting the same comment multiple times within a short space of time, posting the same image repeatedly, or posting unrelated replies to threads.

Continuing to spam threads with the same post after being asked not to could potentially lead to a temporary or permanent ban at the discretion of the Green Man Gaming staff and the moderation team.

Advertising and Selling

Advertising or selling of any kind is not allowed on Green Man Gaming. This includes affiliate links or referral links of any kind, and moderators reserve the right to delete these kind of posts. If you continue to post advertising, affiliate or referral links after you have been asked not to, you may receive a warning or temporary ban.

Code Begging

Begging for codes or free games is not allowed on the Green Man Gaming Community, and will result in your post being deleted. If you continue to make posts of this kind after being asked not to, you may receive a warning or temporary ban.

Competitions

Users are welcome to run their own giveaways and competitions, however, Green Man Gaming takes no responsibility for the outcome of these and users enter them at their own risk.

Competitions run by Green Man Gaming have their own terms and conditions, but user comments expressing gratitude or questions about entering are typically not considered to be spam and should not be reported as such.

Non-Gaming Content

Although the Green Man Gaming Community was created with gamers in mind, we know that everyone has a diverse set of interests, so off-topic conversation is generally allowed. We’ve set up a number of different channels to make it easier to find posts about certain topics – please add your post to the correct channel, or it may be moved into a more appropriate channel by the moderation team.

Post Topics

We want your creativity to shine, so individual posts to promote your own website, clan, YouTube channel or Twitch channel are more than welcome on the Green Man Gaming Community, providing that you do not spam the buzz feed with links to these items.

You are also very welcome to ask people to play games with you, provided that these requests aren’t posted repeatedly within a short space of time.

Spoilers

Spoilers are also a sensitive issue. Please mark any thread that discusses story content with a clear indication that the thread contains sensitive spoiler content – this applies to older games, as well as new releases. Purposefully spoiling a game for others may result in a temporary or permanent ban.

Copyright

We love seeing the latest gaming news, but want to make sure that the original writers and contributors are credited properly. When sharing content from another site, a link to the original source must be included. Links, excerpts, quotes, videos, images, summaries and scores of games are all allowed, but full copy-and-pastes of articles are not.

Support

From time to time, users may require support for games that they have purchased or intend to purchase from Green Man Gaming, or may have other issues that require support from our customer service team. We recommend sending a ticket to our customer service team, rather than posting on the buzz feed, if you need help, to make sure your problem is looked into as soon as possible. Alternatively, users can search for answers to their questions in our Customer Support page.

However, we know that users may create threads requesting help from the Community occasionally, and we will do our best to refer you to the right place. Continuous replies to threads of this nature that contain irrelevant information or that attempt to derail the thread will be deleted, and you may receive a warning or temporary ban from Community features.

Moderator Team

The Green Man Gaming Community has a voluntary moderation team, who help us to maintain the community. Green Man Gaming will not tolerate any abuse of the moderation team in any area of the site, including the buzz, blog comments and private messages, and any abuse will result in a temporary or permanent ban.

Any and all discussion or complaints regarding moderator conduct should be sent to the community manager, or submitted as a support ticket to our customer service team. If you wish to dispute a decision made by the moderation team, please private message the community manager or contact our customer service team.

Technical Issues / Steam

Please note that moderators are voluntary members of the Green Man Gaming team and cannot help you with technical problems. If you require support with a technical issue, please contact our customer service team by submitting a ticket.

If you wish to unlink your Steam account from your Green Man Gaming account, you must contact Customer Services and they will do this for you.

Green Man Gaming Staff

Due to the real time nature of the buzz feed, Green Man Gaming staff cannot moderate every post, and moderators do not see every post as they happen. Therefore, if you have an issue with any particular post, please report it or get in touch with a moderator directly by private messaging them.

The Green Man Gaming staff are informed of community issues by the moderation team, but can be directly contacted by private messaging our community manager or submitting a ticket to our customer service team.

Messages on Green Man Gaming, with the exception of those expressly posted by staff, do not necessarily reflect the views of Green Man Gaming Limited.

Although many Green Man Gaming Staff are active in the Community, any issues and questions about the platform should always be directly referred to either the Community Manager or the moderators.

Disclaimer

The Green Man Gaming Community is not a democracy but we do not like to censor – we want people to share their passion for gaming and treat each other with respect. However, if you are in breach of the rules then a warning, temporary or permanent ban can be expected. These actions are taken at the discretion of the Green Man Gaming staff and its moderation team.

We reserve the right to delete any message posted by any user for any reason. We reserve the right to ban any users from the service, temporarily or permanently, for any reason. We reserve the right to remove users that we think have a negative impact on the greater community. We reserve the right to change these rules and guidelines at any time.